Lesson 8 - Forgetting Interference Flashcards
Forgetting
Used to refer to a person’s loss of ability to recall or recognise something that they have previously learned
Interference theory
Forgetting occurs when two lots of information become confused in memory
More likely to occur when information sets are similar
Interference is less likely to occur when there is a gap between instances of learning
Types of interference
Retroactive interference
Proactive interference
Retroactive Interference
When new learning affects the recall of old information
Proactive Interference
When old learning affects the recall of new information
Interference Theory Evaluation - Underwood (1957)
Proactive Interference
Participants who learned ten lists of words could only recall 20% from first list next day
Participants who learned one list recalled 70% next day
Interference Theory Evaluation - McGeoch and McDonald (1931)
Retroactive interference
Have participants lists of words they had to learn until recall was 100%
Then learned a new list
New list was either synonyms or antonyms
Asked to recall original list
Participants with synonyms list had worst recall
Learning two lists of words that have same meaning causes interference
Interference Theory Evaluation - Practical Applications
Students should be aware of this so they do not attempt to revise similar content/subjects at the same time as this will make interference more likely
Interference Theory Evaluation - LTM
When interference occurs, loss of information may only be temporary therefore interference is not a true explanation for forgetting because information is not actual over-written and is still in LTM
Interference Theory Evaluation - Retrieval Failure
Psychologists argue RF is much better explanation of forgetting
States when we forget, there are not even retrieval cues
Godden and Baddeley (1975)
